It is well known the ruminant animals, including cattle, sheep, giraffe, deer, goat, bison, and more particularly cattle and sheep, comprise an important group of animals that are able to digest large quantities of feeds. These feeds are swallowed with little chewing and they are ingested into the largest of the four stomachs of the animal, called the rumen. The rumen, however, is not a true stomach inasmuch as it does not have any digestive glands. The rumen is in the nature of a storage compartment, a mixing organ, and a reservoir containing a large concentration of bacteria. The bacteria in the rumen break up the components of feed into simpler substances which are more readily digested by the animal. The feed next is regurgitated by the animal, masticated into finer particles, and then reswallowed by the animal. After the feed particles are reduced to a certain critical size, they pass out of the rumen for further digestion in the other stomachs of the animal.
The veterinary industry has long sought a dispensing system manufactured in the form of a dispensing device that can reside in the rumen over an extended period of time, for releasing a beneficial therapeutic, nutrient or additive agent formulation into the rumen, at a controlled rate over a corresponding extended period of time. The industry seeks a dispensing system because beef cattle, growing calves and sheep graze over a wide pasture and it is highly inconvenient to administer a single dose unit or multiple dose units of a beneficial agent formulation to an animal. Furthermore, ranchers, farmers and feed lot operators lack the time necessary for administering a single or a multiple dose unit to the animal. The need for a dispensing system is sought especially where continual administration is needed for the health and the management of the animal.
There is, therefore, in view of the above presentation, a pressing need for a veterinary dispensing system that can function as a controlled release intra-ruminal device, and after a single admittance remains in the rumen and efficiently dispenses a beneficial agent formulation into the rumen over a prolonged period of time. There is also a need for an intra-ruminal device that is easily swallowed by the ruminant and remains in the rumen for a long period of time for prolonged release of a beneficial agent formulation in the rumen without being regurgitated by the ruminant.